We are taxed, and we are taxed so heavily.
Depending on what we earn,
we are taxed from 30% to 50% of our money.
12 to 20 years of our working lives go to running the government.
They tell us that it's for our health,
to keep us safe,
for us to be educated,
and for our roads to be maintained.
Do we really need to work all these years to maintain all these things?
I'd rather not pay taxes,
Because I can't believe these costs.
I'll build my own house,
grow my own food.
I'll make my own things
and still be just as happy.
I'll stop working for money,
and they'll have "no-thing" to take.
They'll come to my door in panic,
because they're getting no cash.
They'll demand that I work,
It's my income they want.
I'll tell them "no way,"
because I'm not your slave or for money.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Asking ourselves the wrong question
Today, I will keep it brief because I wanted to try something different. I've noticed while reading on the internet that there is just so much fluff in writing online that just bores me. "Get to the point" I keep on thinking, but the article just keeps on meandering to make it's point, mostly these end up to be multi page articles posted online so that people have to click through to be bombarded with more ads and I abhor it. So I was wondering if I could materialistically write and see if my point still gets across, or even better yet, stimulate thinking instead of me explaining everything. I could write a whole essay, but I will hold off this time around.
Today's thought is:
I think we've been asking ourselves the wrong question. We'd always get asked "what do you want to be when you grow up" and we'd answer with "doctor," "firemen," "pilot" and more. But we've missed the point of it; it's not about what do we want to be, it's all about what do we want to do. What we turn out to be is just a by-product of the things we are doing.
Today's thought is:
I think we've been asking ourselves the wrong question. We'd always get asked "what do you want to be when you grow up" and we'd answer with "doctor," "firemen," "pilot" and more. But we've missed the point of it; it's not about what do we want to be, it's all about what do we want to do. What we turn out to be is just a by-product of the things we are doing.
Monday, January 28, 2008
The joy of living out of a suitcase
It has now been about 10 days since I got back to Japan. I've finally unloaded my suitcase, stashed all the things I bought while on my trip in various places in the house and in while doing so, I came to the realization that a lot of the things in my room, I never really use.
It's kind of an interesting feeling moving from living out of a suitcase/backpack to a room with closets, shelves and more. The only things I needed while traveling were my clothing, maybe a guidebook, something to read, my camera, toiletries, wallet and passport. That was it. Everything I needed to survive on was packed neatly into a suitcase (which was only 1/2 full). I carried a backpack and a small shoulder bag for short day trips. Everything in the bags I carried, I used nearly every everyday and it was amazing how few things I needed to get by on.
I look at my room right now with books, tools, a printer, a map, a closet full of dressy clothing for special occasions and more. The interesting thing about most of my belongings is that I don't use them all that often. They sort of sit in my room collecting dust most of the time, till the point where I might pull it out and use it once in a few months or so; the rest of it all is clutter.
When thinking about my belongings in this manner, I can't seem to understand how our culture is so wrapped up about shopping or going out and buying things. Take a walk in city and look around, what you will see is that nearly all the activities of people out there is for shopping or shopping related (ie. delivery vans, people tending stores, etc). My experiences living out of a suitcase for the past 3 months has been a great eye opening experience when it comes to looking at my belongings. I find it strange that spending both our time and money to buy things is so important, even just for keep's sake when we can easily get by on so much less, leaving us with so much more to do many other things.
My life living out of a suitcase was entirely different-- I didn't have the luxury (that is, if I can still call it one now) of keeping many possessions; I wanted to be unburdened. If there were things that I didn't need any more, like a traveler's guide, I'd be pretty willing to give it away to some other traveler that can make good use of it. Or gave away the cell phone cards or things I didn't need anymore.
Since coming home, I also noticed that having so many belongings made it harder for me to focus on the immediately important things. While traveling, I would only be concerned about making sure I had a place to stay, having my clothes washed once in a while and making up a plan as I went. It was amazing living a life so focused on exploring different countries, finding out what they had to offer, the different ways of life and even just finding simple ways of enjoying myself while on a budget. Everyday, I knew that I wanted to get up and go off somewhere to find something interesting to see or experience. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do (even if it was random wandering) and had everything I needed to do what I wanted.
After getting home and being around my apartment for the past week, my life has been filled with all sorts of distractions. Mainly the internet, computer games, shopping, getting called out for hanging out (not that it's a bad thing) and more. There's just so many things that could aimlessly play with (I actually spent the last few days just playing computer games). I wake up bored, sometimes not knowing what I want to do and just find something in my room to go play around with.
With these thoughts, I postulate that many of the things we do in life is about killing boredom, whether be it games, shopping, eating, watching movies or whatever. It was never often that I had the chance to wakeup with purpose every morning to find something I was really interested in doing. This is something that I want to focus on more and maybe I can start by getting rid of the things that I don't need, while only keeping the things that are important.
All I need to do is choose what is important to me.
It's kind of an interesting feeling moving from living out of a suitcase/backpack to a room with closets, shelves and more. The only things I needed while traveling were my clothing, maybe a guidebook, something to read, my camera, toiletries, wallet and passport. That was it. Everything I needed to survive on was packed neatly into a suitcase (which was only 1/2 full). I carried a backpack and a small shoulder bag for short day trips. Everything in the bags I carried, I used nearly every everyday and it was amazing how few things I needed to get by on.
I look at my room right now with books, tools, a printer, a map, a closet full of dressy clothing for special occasions and more. The interesting thing about most of my belongings is that I don't use them all that often. They sort of sit in my room collecting dust most of the time, till the point where I might pull it out and use it once in a few months or so; the rest of it all is clutter.
When thinking about my belongings in this manner, I can't seem to understand how our culture is so wrapped up about shopping or going out and buying things. Take a walk in city and look around, what you will see is that nearly all the activities of people out there is for shopping or shopping related (ie. delivery vans, people tending stores, etc). My experiences living out of a suitcase for the past 3 months has been a great eye opening experience when it comes to looking at my belongings. I find it strange that spending both our time and money to buy things is so important, even just for keep's sake when we can easily get by on so much less, leaving us with so much more to do many other things.
My life living out of a suitcase was entirely different-- I didn't have the luxury (that is, if I can still call it one now) of keeping many possessions; I wanted to be unburdened. If there were things that I didn't need any more, like a traveler's guide, I'd be pretty willing to give it away to some other traveler that can make good use of it. Or gave away the cell phone cards or things I didn't need anymore.
Since coming home, I also noticed that having so many belongings made it harder for me to focus on the immediately important things. While traveling, I would only be concerned about making sure I had a place to stay, having my clothes washed once in a while and making up a plan as I went. It was amazing living a life so focused on exploring different countries, finding out what they had to offer, the different ways of life and even just finding simple ways of enjoying myself while on a budget. Everyday, I knew that I wanted to get up and go off somewhere to find something interesting to see or experience. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do (even if it was random wandering) and had everything I needed to do what I wanted.
After getting home and being around my apartment for the past week, my life has been filled with all sorts of distractions. Mainly the internet, computer games, shopping, getting called out for hanging out (not that it's a bad thing) and more. There's just so many things that could aimlessly play with (I actually spent the last few days just playing computer games). I wake up bored, sometimes not knowing what I want to do and just find something in my room to go play around with.
With these thoughts, I postulate that many of the things we do in life is about killing boredom, whether be it games, shopping, eating, watching movies or whatever. It was never often that I had the chance to wakeup with purpose every morning to find something I was really interested in doing. This is something that I want to focus on more and maybe I can start by getting rid of the things that I don't need, while only keeping the things that are important.
All I need to do is choose what is important to me.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
It has been a while
It has been a while since the last time I have done any real writing. over the course of this journey, I havve been traeling and writing short notes on what I have been doing in a hand written journal, of which, I am about 3 weeks behind in writing, something that I will need to complete after I return to my home in Japan.
During the time I have been traveling, I have not had the opportunity to do much essay writing, though I had many interesting ideas pop up and had them written down in a note book. It was not until recently, that I had the chance to take a look at some of the notes and ideas I had and write them out into an essay. Unfortunately, my efforts have yet to bear fruit.
What I realized is that I have a limited time frame to write out my thoughts before they fade. Quite often, ideas simply strike me out of the blue, often while observing the surroundings around me. The idea will often have a central concept and my mind will run through the idea, making a variety of connections. In the end, I may end up with an essay idea crystalized in my head which I am able to hash out into a post.
Unfortuately as of recently, I haven't had the opportunity to do much of that and as a result, my writing capabilities have dwindled somewhat as it becomes harder for me to put words into my thoughts. After returning to Japan, I will have to get back into the grove of writing to bring my ability to articulate myself back up.
For the time being, I will have to shelve some of the ideas I've had during this trip for writing at a future date. What I've noticed sometimes is that some ideas that I don't write about get “redicovered” and I may have a second chance to write about them in the near future.
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